LWI December 2006 - News in Brief
+ New Publication on Latin American Lutheran Churches? Response to HIV and AIDS + Gustav Björkstrand Installed as Bishop of Finland?s Porvoo Diocese + Namibia?s "Poverty Ambassador" Kameeta Praises Churches? Work + Church of Sweden Staff Aasa-Marklund Killed in Car Crash + Australian Lutherans Fail to Reach Majority Vote for Women?s Ordination + ELCA Council Urges Synods to Join in LWF?s 60th Anniversary Celebrations + Antje Jackelén Is Bishop-Elect of Sweden?s Lund Diocese + Italian Lutheran Leader Elected to Protestant Churches? Governing Council + Rev. Dr Milos Klatik New Lutheran Bishop in Slovak Republic + Two Lutheran Churches in Norway Move Closer to Unity + South African Lutheran Pastor Kistner Dies + New Rules for Foreign Preachers in Denmark?
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New Publication on Latin American Lutheran Churches? Response to HIV and AIDS
The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) member churches in Latin America have published a book comprising a variety of documents and texts from among its constituency dealing with the challenge of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. It is titled Para que puedan vivir - la comunión Luterana escucha y responde en el VIH y SIDA (That You May Live - The Lutheran Communion Listens and Responds in Times of HIV and AIDS). Its four chapters-1. Documents from Ecumenical Organizations and Churches; 2. Biblical and Theological Foundation; 3. Education and Prevention; and 4. Accompaniment, Pastoral Action, Liturgy and Meditation, present the current reflection and practices of the churches in the region with regard to HIV and AIDS.
As expressed in the book?s foreword, the churches hope through this publication ?to consolidate joint learning processes, reaffirm fundamental convictions and open spaces to creatively continue building and developing the witness of the churches in today?s world."
Para que puedan vivir vivir - la comunión Luterana escucha y responde en el VIH y SIDA is the second book in the series named after Rev. Humberto Ramos Salazar, president of the Bolivian Evangelical Lutheran Church who died in a car accident in October 2004.
Copies can be ordered from the higher institute of theological studies (ISEDET) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at rectorado@isedet.edu.ar
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Gustav Björkstrand Installed as Bishop of Finland?s Porvoo Diocese
Rev. Dr Gustav Björkstrand is the new bishop of the Diocese of Porvoo, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF). He was installed as head of the ELCF?s Swedish-speaking diocese on 3 December.
The diocese?s elections for bishop were held on 13 September. Björkstrand succeeds Rev. Dr Erik Vikström, who led the diocese from 1983 until his retirement on 1 December.
In 2005 Björkstrand retired from the position of rector of Abo Akademi University, Turku, a position he held since 1997. From 1991 to 1997, he was a professor of practical theology at the university, where he also taught church history and religious pedagogics between 1975 and 1983. Prior to joining Abo Akademi, he worked as a parish and school pastor, and as rector of the Swedish-speaking Christian Folk High School in Nykarleby. He was ordained as a pastor in 1964, and earned his doctorate in theology in 1976.
From 1983 to 1987, Björkstrand worked as a Minister of Culture and Science, and was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 1991. He was a delegate to the ELCF Synod for some 20 years between the 1970s and 1990s.
Björkstrand, 65, is married to Prof. Eila Helander. He has two children and four grandchildren.
Established in 1923, Porvoo is the only Swedish-speaking diocese among the ELCF?s nine dioceses. It comprises 75 parishes from throughout Finland, including all the Swedish-speaking parishes, bilingual parishes where the majority of the members speak Swedish, and the German parish in Helsinki.
Porvoo is known for the 1992 historic agreement to the Porvoo Common Statement, an agreement between the British and Irish Anglican churches and Baltic and Nordic Lutheran churches, allowing them to recognize each other's ordained ministry including at the episcopal level, and opening up closer church relations and co-operation. The 4.6 million-member ELCF joined the LWF in 1947.
(ELCF Church Communications Center)
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Namibia?s "Poverty Ambassador" Kameeta Praises Churches? Work
Namibian Lutheran Bishop Dr Zephania Kameeta says he hopes his recent appointment, as one of the country?s ambassadors for the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) would strengthen "the efforts of the churches in the region and within the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) to address poverty-related issues."
Kameeta is bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN) and LWF vice president for the Africa region. In the context of the 17 October commemoration of the United Nations? "World Day to Overcome Extreme Poverty," the Namibia Non-Governmental Organization Forum appointed Kameeta and Ms Veronica de Klerk, executive director of the Women?s Action for Development (WAD), as GCAP ambassadors. They will lead the national anti-poverty campaign.
Speaking to Lutheran World Information (LWI) about his anticipated role in the fight against poverty, Kameeta said the "appointment was a great surprise for me * and an honor for the Lutheran church in Namibia." He described it as "an acknowledgment of the work we have been doing in Namibia and in the region."
The Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN), to which the ECLRN belongs, commemorated the day with special prayers for victims of poverty, and renewed its call on the government to alleviate mass poverty in the country.
The 2005 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Program indicated that 34.9 percent of Namibia?s population of 2 million people live on one US dollar per day, and 55.8 percent live on two US dollars.
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Church of Sweden Staff Aasa-Marklund Killed in Car Crash
Ms Inger Aasa-Marklund, the International Secretary for the Church of Sweden Diocese of Lulea, was killed in a car accident on 24 November in the vicinity of Cairo, during a visit to partner churches in Egypt. Her daughter Sara also died in the accident.
Her husband, Rev. Richard Marklund, and a close friend of the family, Bishop Thomas of the Diocese of El Quossia in Southern Egypt, also travelling in the same car escaped with injuries.
"It is a terrible thing that has happened, and it is with great distress that we have received this news. I have lost a good friend and member of staff. Richard and other members of the family are in my thoughts and prayers all the time," said the Bishop of Lulea, Hans Stiglund in a statement.
Aasa-Marklund was born in 1960 and her daughter Sara in 1998. Besides her position in the Diocese of Lulea, she was also a member of the Central and Executive Committees of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches. (186 words)
(Based on a Church of Sweden press release.)
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Australian Lutherans Fail to Reach Majority Vote for Women?s Ordination
At its 2006 Regular Convention, the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA) failed to reach the required majority vote for women?s ordination. The 26*29 September LCA General Pastors? Conference and the General Synod, meeting 30 September to 5 October in Toowoomba, Queensland, did not get the two-thirds majority required to adopt the vote. This was the second time in six years that the LCA governing body has rejected the proposal for women?s ordination. The LCA has studied the issue of women?s ordination since the 1990s. The 75,000-member church has been an associate member church of the LWF since 1994.
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ELCA Council Urges Synods to Join in LWF?s 60th Anniversary Celebrations
The Church Council of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) called on the church?s 65 synods, 10,549 congregations and 4.85 million member to support the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and join in preparations to celebrate the LWF?s 60th anniversary in March 2007. The Church Council is the ELCA?s board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies. The council met here Nov. 11*13.
The Council adopted a resolution ?that the synods and congregations of this church commit to hold the Lutheran World Federation in prayer.? The resolution encouraged ELCA synods and congregations to use resources - prayers, litanies, devotional readings and stories*that will be available to mark the anniversary and LWF Sunday, usually the first Sunday of each October, ?to become better informed and also to understand more deeply the relationship of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to the global Lutheran family.?
The council also urged ELCA members ?to support the work of the LWF with gifts and special offerings for the LWF Endowment Fund? so that the LWF will continue to be ?strong and vital? for the next 60 years. (ELCA News Service)
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Antje Jackelén Is Bishop-Elect of Sweden?s Lund Diocese
Rev. Antje Jackelén will become the next bishop of the Church of Sweden?s Diocese of Lund. She was elected as bishop of Lund in October. The Church of Sweden pastor will assume her new position in April 2007, succeeding retiring Bishop Christina Odenberg, who has led the diocese since 1997.
Jackelén has been an associate professor of systematic theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago since 2001. Ordained in 1980, she was a parish pastor for 16 years in the Stockholm and Lund dioceses. She also served in Gardstanga and at the Lund Cathedral. She earned degrees from the universities of Tübingen in Germany, and Uppsala and Lund in Sweden.
Jackelén is married to Rev. Heinz Jackelén, and they have two daughters.
The Diocese of Lund has an estimated 1 million members in its 217 parishes. It is one of the 13 dioceses of the 7 million-member Church of Sweden. (ELCA News Service)
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Italian Lutheran Leader Elected to Protestant Churches? Governing Council
The Dean of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy Rev. Holger Milkau is a member of the recently appointed Council of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI). Domenico Maselli, a pastor of the Waldensian Church in Lucca, Tuscany, was elected as FCEI president, during the body?s 14th Assembly from 1 to 4 November in Rome. The new council that will govern the umbrella body of the Protestant churches in Italy for the next three years also includes two other Waldensian pastors and Methodist lay members. Outgoing president Gianni Long, who had served six years as the head of the body of Italy?s Protestant churches assured the FCEI of his strong commitment, especially in the field of freedom of religion and in strengthening relationships with other Italian Protestant churches.
The Italian Lutheran church has 7,000 members. It joined the LWF in 1949. (FCEI News Bulletin *NEV)
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Rev. Dr Milos Klatik New Lutheran Bishop in Slovak Republic
Rev. Dr Milos Klatik, 43, is the new general bishop of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Slovak Republic (ECAC-SR). He was installed as general bishop in his own congregation in Bratislava-Petrzalka on October 28.
Klatik succeeded Dr Julius Filo as general bishop, who received his farewell at a celebration the previous evening in the auditorium of the University of Bratislava?s Faculty of Protestant Theology. Filo was vice president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) for its Central and Eastern European region from 1997 to 2003, but was no longer eligible to run for the post after his second term in office.
Klatik studied theology in Bratislava, in the German cities of Erlangen, Berlin, Tübingen, and Heidelberg, and in Birmingham and London, England. He worked as a vicar (intern pastor) in the congregations in Ruzomberok and Petrzalka, where he focused strongly on parish growth and organized a new church center. Klatik received his doctorate in systematic theology for his dissertation on the priesthood of all believers.
He now teaches systematic theology at the Faculty of Protestant Theology of the University of Bratislava. Milos Klatik is married with four children.
The ECAC-SR has some 373,000 members and has been a member of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) since 1947.
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Two Lutheran Churches in Norway Move Closer to Unity
The (Lutheran) Church of Norway and the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Norway negotiated an agreement of full recognition and cooperation to come into force once approved by the synods of the two denominations.
According to the Church of Norway Information Service, the agreement called "One Faith - Together as Lutheran Churches in Norway," states that the two denominations fully recognize each other, including their ordained ministries. The churches will remain separate, though with a common doctrinal basis. The Church of Norway Information Service announced the agreement late October.
The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Norway was founded in 1877 by priests and lay people who left the majority (Lutheran) Church of Norway over disagreement about the country?s state-church system. The two churches have cooperated for many years in the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) National Committee in Norway. The Church of Norway, which includes 85 per cent of the country?s 4.6 million people, joined the LWF in 1947. The 22,000-member Free church joined the LWF as an associate member church in 1997, changing to full membership in 2005. (Church of Norway Information Service & Ecumenical News International
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South African Lutheran Pastor Kistner Dies
South African Lutheran pastor Wolfram Kistner, died on 4 December aged 83. Kistner was well known for his role in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.
Born as the son of a German missionary in Hermannsburg, in what is now the South African province of KwaZulu Natal, Kistner studied history at the University of Pretoria and in the Netherlands. After receiving his doctorate, he studied theology in Germany.
Ordained as a Lutheran pastor in 1952, Kistner served churches in South Africa and Germany, and directed the Hermannsburg mission school. Subsequently, he worked as a lecturer at the theological seminary of the then University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg.
He joined the South African Council of Churches in 1976 as director of the Division of Justice and Reconciliation. He remained in that post until his retirement in 1988, when he joined in the establishment of the Ecumenical Advice Bureau, which became an important resource in intensifying the struggle against apartheid.
In April this year, Kistner was awarded one of South Africa?s highest awards, the presidential Order of the Baobab in Silver, in recognition of his "contribution to the fight for justice, equality and democracy in South Africa"
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New Rules for Foreign Preachers in Denmark?
With a draft bill, Denmark?s Ministry of Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs wants to tighten up the demands for giving residence permits to foreign preachers in religious congregations, Church News from Denmark, reports.
Denmark currently has 675 foreign preachers affiliated either to Christian congregations, to the Muslim communities as imams or as missionaries to the Mormon church. There are also a few foreign priests and nuns related to the Roman Catholic Church, according to Church News from Denmark, the information service of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark (ELCD).
According to the bill, a condition for obtaining a residence permit would include that the foreigner has familiarized himself/herself with Danish language and respects human rights, especially freedom of religion and faith, and the right to change religion.
An expert in religion and law, Lisbet Christoffersen told the Danish newspaper, the Christian Daily that "it is a fundamental part of religious freedom that a congregation is allowed to call its own preachers. A law demanding a Danish language test is, therefore, a move against full religious freedom because then you can only call persons who pass the test."
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(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140 member churches in 78 countries all over the world, with a total membership of 66.2 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)
[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF?s information service. Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]
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